back to article Delta hacked my email, says passenger rights chief

An airline passenger rights advocate is accusing Delta Air Lines of hacking into her computer and e-mail accounts to sabotage her organization's attempts to mandate basic services during flight delays. Kate Hanni, a resident of California, is the founder of the Coalition for an Airline Passengers Bill of Rights, an …

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  1. kain preacher

    Well

    On one hand I want to call her a loon, on the other hand I've seen companies things that are very naughty. IF she can prove it I hope she takes Delta for every thing they got

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Of course it's absurd

    that they should hack her email. How dare you suggest that anybody employed by the airline would do such a thing?

    After all, what else are external "consultants" for?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Over 3 hours?

    Hell, I'll have killed half the cabin crew by then and have nicotine withdrawal as mitigation!

    If it was a long haul I'd be okay as I'd be covered in patches!

  4. Oldfogey
    Black Helicopters

    Lost & Corrupted Data?

    But naturally she was able to recover the data from a backup, so there was no actual loss, as such.

    And nobody keeps critical data on an online email service, so no problem there.

    So why am I not surprised that an airline might hack into files illegally, rather than risk having to treat passengers like human beings and actually provide the service that they have paid for?

    Do they use planes or black helicopters?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    "the allegation that we would hack an individual's e-mail is absurd."?

    An *individual*? Does that mean they have no problem with a company or other group?

  6. Maty

    We don't hack accounts

    But we know people who know people who do. Didn't HP get into trouble for something like this a while back?

  7. Murray Pearson 1

    I know what's absurd....

    ....that anyone uses AOL?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Hang on a sec...

    So this Foreman guy was sending a 3rd party some of his employer's data without their consent... Where is that okay?

  9. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse
    Thumb Up

    Keep us updated...

    Keep us updated on this story El Reg. I'd like to know the outcome.

    Thanks.

  10. Daniel Wilkie

    Is it just me

    that thinks every time somebody sues someone else for something like this, the amounts involved seem patently ridiculous? I mean $11,000,000 for some stolen emails. Really? I'd have a little more sympathy if she was asking somethign more sensible in damages...

    I thought damages were supposed to represent the damage done, not more than many people would earn in 40 years...

  11. Number6

    On the Ground

    I was stuck on the tarmac at Chicago once, I think it was four hours. Delays were due to storms to the west. However, it was a United flight, the crew knew what they were doing and dispensed drinks at suitable intervals, and United has ATC as one of the audio channels so I got to be entertained by listening to the ground chat. Such gems as someone asking ATC if they knew a good pizza joint that delivered, someone asking about the eventual departure order when the weather cleared with a response from another pilot of "hey, this is Chicago..." and ATC pointing out that they don't take American Express. There were also regular updates on the weather and delays, so while it was annoying, it was bearable because I was kept informed, pretty much real time.

  12. Mike007 Bronze badge

    easy

    well surely he has an easy case, he denies it and sues for unfair dismissal for being sacked for nothing, they turn up in court with a copy of emails proving him guilty, he asks where they got those emails from, oops...

    of course now they've gone and shot themselves in the foot by admitting it in public, so they don't have to provide the emails they can just point to the countless news articles where he admits what he was doing!

  13. Charles Smith

    I can't wait for the youtube video

    Will there be a complaint like the "Delta Airlines Breaks Guitars"? If you don't know about this video Google the phrase.

  14. Mike007 Bronze badge

    delta?

    you mean united break guitars? delta hack email :)

  15. Jonathan Richards 1
    Thumb Up

    Guantanamo Bay: Problem solved

    If there's no legal limit to the amount of time passengers can be held in an aircraft on the tarmac, I think that President Obama can swiftly close the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities, replacing them with a few old airframes on the apron of some out-of-the-way airports.

    "Passengers are advised to keep their seat-belts fastened at all times. And their handcuffs".

    The land of the free... except airside.

  16. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    I suppose

    I suppose you can be contractually restrained from discussing your company CIO's killing spree in a local shopping mall even when all the information has been heard in court and broadcast on nightly news, becase you are, in a small way, helping to make the company look bad. Although not as much as Mr Hansen did in the first place. (Hypothetical example.) However that would depend, here, on whether your contract actually has such a condition. If you're just a cashier in a gas station then I assume you can discuss the owner's eczema with no comeback, within reason. As long as it isn't sexual harassment or something.

    As for claiming high damages, (1) you may as well, they'll only ever give you less, and (2) THEY NEED TO BE PUNISHED SO THEY KNOW NOT TO DO THIS.

    Hey, you know what I've wondered for years... Opera is a web browser an' stuff published from a fairly small business office. Microsoft could plan a medium size bomb in the building and eliminate a competitor, wham, like that. Why haven't they? The explanation that makes sense to me is that it's against the law and they'd probably be caught. If that wasn't the case, crommentators here who are always bugged my Opera whining about unfair competition could get some instant relief.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    US crap airlines

    My last trip to the US I chose Delta instead of my usual airline Virgin Atlantic never, never, never again. Electric storm over Chicago sent to Detroit airport landed not allowed to disembark stayed there for 2 hours, missed connecting flight to Las Vegas eventually got there after traveling for 26 hours, oh and crap service as well, and no sorry ether. Never fly a US airline again. So it wouldn't surprise Delta employing a PC spook to steal info if they have pay customers for the problems we had and put in infrastructure to look after customers.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    isn't there a law for this already?

    There'll be something about keeping livestock fed and watered whilst in transit won't there?

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